Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995                   TAG: 9503090081
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF AND DAN CASEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUPER WAL-MART BEGINS BUILDING

Wal-Mart, based at Bentonville, Ark., said the addition of the 199,000-square-foot store on the mall ring road will create about 450 new jobs for Roanoke-area residents. The company declined to release construction cost.

A company spokesman said he had no information about construction schedules for Wal-Mart stores proposed at Martinsville-Henry County, Christiansburg and Rocky Mount, nor for a new regional distribution center.

Wal-Mart said its supercenters feature 36 general merchandise departments, including complete apparel with accessories, jewelry, a lawn and garden center, a full line of electronics, a health and beauty aids department, and a pharmacy.

In addition, the grocery area features bakery, deli, frozen food, meat, fresh produce and dairy departments.

The Roanoke supercenter also will have a Wendy's fast-food outlet and a Tire & Lube Express.

Wal-Mart said the Roanoke store will have wide aisles, department directories and 24-hour service.

But the store also will mean more traffic for already congested roads near the mall.

A study estimates that at the peak daily hour, up to 650 cars heading to and from Wal-Mart will be added to Hershberger Road and Valley View Boulevard, according to Bob Bengtson, Roanoke traffic engineer.

The impact of those cars is likely to be strongest at the intersection of Valley View Boulevard with westbound lanes of Hershberger, a corridor that already is at capacity during peak hours, he said.

``There's going to be some additional traffic,'' Bengtson said. ``Obviously, there's the opportunity for additional cars during the peak hour. But I don't think it's going to be anything that's going to make the road impassable.''

To alleviate some of the expected congestion, the city has required Wal-Mart to pay for reworking operations of a traffic signal at Valley View Boulevard near the Hechinger store.

The company also will pay for changes to Valley View Boulevard and Valley View Boulevard West that should help improve a bottleneck caused when many cars leave the mall at the same time, Bengtson said.

Wal-Mart also is paying to add a fourth lane to the ring road on the mall's south side, where it will meet Wal-Mart's parking lot.

The city has asked the Federal Highway Administration to approve an additional interchange on Interstate 581 south of the mall, which would take traffic off Hershberger. But even if the Federal Highway Administration approves, a new interchange would take years to design and construct.

A traffic analysis prepared this past fall for Valley View Mall estimates that daily traffic could grow by 66 percent in the I-581-Hershberger Road area over the next 25 years.